Coaching Staff

John MacInnis - Head Coach
johnmacinnis@rogers.com

The Algonquin Thunder will be led by 4th year Head Coach John MacInnis.  Last season, Coach MacInnis led the Thunder to their first OCAA Championship since 1973. They defeated the three time defending OCAA Champion Sheridan Bruins in the Championship game.  At Nationals, the Thunder came home with the CCAA Silver Medal after losing to the top seed Montmorency Nomades in the Championship Final.  Coach MacInnis has a 35-11 career regular season with the Thunder over the last three seasons.

Prior to being Head Coach, John was an assistant coach with the Thunder for three years under Brian White. John is entering his 13th year of coaching and has coached a wide range of age groups and teams. He started coaching in 1996 in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and coached the boy basketball team at Dr. T.L. Sullivan Junior High. He then moved to the Senior Boys team at Memorial High School for two years and won the Cape Breton Division 2 Championship in 1997. He was also involved in the Cape Breton Showcase program and coached both the midget boys and juvenile girls teams. After taking some time off coaching to focus on school, he moved to Ottawa and was given an opportunity to coach the St. Joseph High School Jaguars Junior Boys team in 2002 and led them to the Tier II Ottawa final. He then joined the highly successful Gloucester Wolverine organization and coached the competitive midget boys team for two years before joining the Thunder in 2005.

John is a certified NCCP Level 2 coach and has completed the Level 3 Theory and Technical programs and is currently working toward his Practical certification.

Jeremy Sims - Associate Head Coach

Coach Sims is entering his second year with the Thunder. He has been a fixture in the girls club basketball scene in Ottawa since 2001. Most recently he has been the head coach of the successful Ottawa Shooting Stars Junior girls club. In his last two seasons Jeremy led the Shooting Stars to the championship game at the OBA Provincial Championships and has come away with a Gold and Silver medal. Jeremy played university basketball at both Guelph University and Carleton University. He then moved into coaching and got involved with the Ottawa Shooting Stars club in 2001 and has coached Bantam, Major Bantam, Major Midget and Junior girls over his tenure with the club. Jeremy has also been involved with the Capital Bantam and Junior Development Programs (BDP and JDP) from 2005 to 2008. In addition to his coaching duties he has been the Director of the Ottawa Shooting Stars summer camps from 2002 to 2008 along with various other camps and clinics in the Chantam and Ottawa areas.

Cassandra Carpenter - Assistant Coach

Coach Carpenter is entering her second year with the Thunder.  She is one of the most decorated players in Ontario women's university basketball history. She finished up her stellar five year career at Laurentian University in 2008 as the all-time leading scorer in Canadian university women's basketball. She is a four time Ontario East Division university player of the year and was named to All-Canadian First team three times and second team once. She was also the CIS Rookie of the year in 2003-2004 and is a four time Laurentian University Female Athlete of the Year winner. Cassandra grew up in Kanata and attended Earl of March Secondary School. For the last two years Cassandra took her talents overseas where she played professionally with the South Adelaide Panthers of the Central Australia Basketball League. Cassandra also has a passion for coaching and has coached at numerous levels including the Ottawa Canstars from 2003 to 2006, Basketball Ontario Regional Training Centre in Sudbury and with the U18 South Adelaide Club girls team in Australia last year. She has also done numerous clinics in Ottawa, Sudbury, Brockville, Winnipeg and Saskatoon.

Kelly Adams - Team Educational Psychologist

This will be Kelly Adams second year working with the Thunder Women's basketball program. Kelly (M.Ed Counselling, Certified Co-Active Coach, ICF) brings a diverse set of skills to the table, as she is a counsellor, co-active coach, facilitator and teacher with more than twenty-five years of experience to her credit. Throughout her career, Kelly has worked with all ages, from toddlers to adults in their retirement years. She has a unique way of inspiring and motivating people, and has spent the last eight years actively involved with competitive basketball teams. Since 2008 she has conducted workshops and performance reviews for coaches, and worked with teams during the regular season on setting goals and teaching “mind mastery” skills such as visualization, deep breathing, and stress management. Last season year she worked with Algonquin Thunder’s team of coaches and players and assisted them in reaching their goal of winning the Ontario Provincial Basketball Championship